Five Simple Miscellaneous Golf Tips

Simple in golf is often better than complex. For example, we teach students in our golf lessons to flare their front foot out when addressing the ball. Flaring your foot is a simple adjustment that provides big results. It lets golfers clear their front hips better and hit longer straighter shots. Simple adjustments like these can work wonders for players with all kinds of golf handicaps. Incorporate enough of them in your swing and you'll find yourself hitting the ball more accurately and consistently. Below are five simple golf tips that can impact your game.

Let The Putter Shaft Dictate

Many golfers favor an arcing path over a straight back and threw path when putting. These players feel the arcing path is better suited to today's faster greens. But there are also many golfers committed to the straight back and threw path. If that's you, try using a center-shafted putter. It could turn your putting game around. When the shaft is positioned in the putter's center, the amount the putter face opens and closes during the stroke is reduced. When putting, you want your putterface to open and close as little as possible.

Level Your Shoulders

Conventional wisdom says lower your tee to produce a lower, more penetrating ball flight. This adjustment isn't always compatible with today's larger, more deep-faced clubheads. Lowering the tee makes it difficult to hit the ball with the clubface's sweet spot. Instead, try adjusting your shoulders. The typical driver set up tilts your spine away from the target. Thus, your back shoulder is lower than your front shoulder. When you want to hit a low penetrating ball flight into the wind, level your shoulders rather than lower the tee. It's safer and encourages better contact.

Use Hybrids

With Divots Sooner or later you will end up in a divot hole or a small crater. When you do, use your hybrid to get it out. Many golfers with high golf handicaps try to dig themselves out of this lie with an iron. Digging out forces you to adopt a steeper swing path, often resulting in poor contact. Try a hybrid instead. Its sole keeps the clubhead from getting stuck in the hole. To hit the ball solidly when in a divot hole or crater, feel as if your shoulders are level as the club swings through impact. That feeling keeps the bottom of your swing as level as possible.

Pull Down With Your Knee

To hit irons pure, you must achieve the correct impact position. You can do so with help from some swing imagery. As you complete your backswing, visualize a rubber band connecting your club's butt end to your back knee. To get your hands down imagine that your back knee must move first to pull the club toward the ball. This imagery helps you start your swing with your lower body. It also helps transfer your weight forward to your front foot, putting you in good position to hit down on the ball.

Hide Your Cell Phone

We often see new players in our golf instruction sessions trying to scoop the ball in the air. This effort invariably leads to mis-hits. If that's you, you can use your cell phone to cure yourself of this swing fault. Clip the phone to your front hip and practice hitting shots. If you hang back as you do when trying to scoop the ball, the phone will be visible throughout the swing. But if you shift your weight to your front leg and rotate around it, you'll move the phone out of sight.

These five golf tips are fairly simple. They're also easy to add to your swing. But don't underestimate them. They can help you make better contact. And making better contact is the key to chopping strokes off your golf handicap.


Copyright (c) 2011 Jack Moorehouse